Austria and several other European countries decided this week to "choke off the flow of refugees from Greece." Such a selfish decision shows the European Union in chaos. Platitudes of common policy, even employing NATO naval forces to stem the illegal migrant flows into Greece, become questionable. Naked nationalism and fear are rising in the EU the Mediterranean. The consequence of Greece's northern neighbors shutting down their borders to Syrian and Afghan war refugees already in Greece is certain to make the present dramatic refugee situation in Greece considerably worse. For several years, but especially the last several months, every day hundreds of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan land on the Greek Aegean islands. These islands welcome and accommodate tourists for a few months per year. But the ceaseless flood of impoverished and suffering war immigrants has overwhelmed the islands and Greece. Neither the small islands nor Greece have the infrastructure, space, or money for large number of refugees. Second, these refugees are primarily Moslems. Modern Greeks are primarily Orthodox Christians. These religions of Islam and Christianity, and their faithful, don't easily mix. This is particularly true in Greece because Greece had had a terrible and genocidal experience under Turkish Moslem occupation. Third, it is Moslem Turkey that facilitates the Moslem migrant stream from Syria to the Greek islands. Turkish gangsters charge Syrians and other Moslem migrants large sums of money to carry them through Turkey and, finally, dump them to flimsy and easily sinkable inflatable rubber boats for the crossing of the hazardous waters of the Aegean for Greece. Greece, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States have failed to properly handle this dramatic invasion of a country, Greece, by countless unarmed and desperate people. Greece has the misfortune of having elected incompetent and ideologically backward politicians in the government. These politicians, and especially the young and misinformed Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, act as if they govern a country they thoroughly dislike. They are under the delusion of international respect for an open borders policy. Perversely, it's like these Greek politicians are agents of Turkey. Germany and France run the European Union like a company town. Germany in fact is trying to gain in peacetime what it never won during WWII. Germany pretends Greeks have forgotten the ferocious occupation of their country by Nazi Germany. In addition, Germany plundered occupied Greece of archaeological treasures. Those treasures have yet to be returned to Greece. These invisible hostilities between Germany and Greece bubbled up to the surface when bankrupt Greece came begging to the EU. Germany-run EU responded with a vengeance. It brought in America's International Monetary Fund known all over the Third World for its harshness. Together, EU and IMF, fashioned agreements with Greece perfectly fit for colonies. While Greece has been in the purgatory of debt and taking daily orders from Germany, refugees started crawling the shores of the Aegean island of Lesbos. When the migrants filled Lesbos, the Greek government hired ocean liners to provide temporary accommodations and send many to its northern borders for moving to other European countries like Germany. But even these hastily conceived policies are falling apart. European countries are saying enough is enough. EU and America, especially America, are responsible for the refugee flood from the Middle East. The US attack on Iraq in 2003 opened the gates of hell for the Mediterranean. The devastating civil war in Syria and the emergence of barbarism all over the Middle East are the products of American occupation of Iraq. Time has come for America to bring the Syrian conflict to an end. The Europeans should insist on that. Ending the war in Syria is also ending the refugee exodus. EU and US have to order Turkey to stop playing with fire, the religious fire of supporting the barbaric Moslem group calling itself ISIS. In fact, Turkey is responsible for so many transgressions against the West it's time to kick it out of NATO. Turkey, for example, routinely violates Greek air space. But the real danger is in Turkey's resurgent Islam. The country has imperial illusions for a second caliphate. Moreover, Turkey could probably provoke war with Russia, a trigger for WWIII. The earlier the US expels Turkey from NATO, the greater prospects for peace in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. EU and US also have the duty to take the refugee burden off Greece. The country has no ways and means to satisfactorily deal with such a large Moslem population. The EU should prevent any more refugees from getting to Greece and it should find a suitable place in the Middle East for the temporary settlement of those refugees already in Greece. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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